Lovely lie
by Andromeda of Othrys
Summary: In the end, it doesn't matter who is the one proclaiming to love you, but who's the one doing something about it.


**This drabble is for the Slytherin House, prompt being Lily/Sirius - 885 words**

* * *

Everyone thought Lily Evans and James Potter were a done deal. Smart, beautiful, popular, Head Girl and Boy, not to mention James trying to serenade Lily into going out with him since their second year. Even Mary Macdonald, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew were expecting the wedding bells to ring very soon in their future.

Everyone was dead wrong.

Well, not everyone, precisely. The headmaster didn't seem quite as taken in by the 'perfect' couple as the rest of the school was, but then again, he was once in love with frickin' Gellert Grindelwald. He knew how to spot fakers. Neither was Severus Snape, but that was more due to the fact he had known Lily since she was seven, and even their awful break-up in the fifth year could not erase years of knowing each other by heart.

The thing was, James and Lily could never work out as a couple, and they knew it.

James liked Lily, he really did, but not as a girlfriend - wrong set of lower regions and all that - and Lily was simply not impressed by the people who were all talk and no game. So they made a deal. James would pretend he's madly in love with her, she'd play the part of the highly unimpressed girl - which wasn't that hard! - who is waiting for her suitor to 'stop being such a toerag', quote unquote, and in the meantime they'll scope out people they actually wanted to date.

And they did.

* * *

It was their graduation day, and Lily could not wait for the ceremony to be over. James was roughly the same, pacing around. Being the Head Boy and Girl meant they were supposed to deliver an inspiring speech to their classmates, then mingle and shake hands with the representatives from the Ministry then join their classmates in the final feast. Speech-making and hand-shaking was already ticked off; only the feast remained.

Lily had an additional task on her 'to-do' list: distribute the wedding invitations. She giggled to herself as she recalled the cursive script on the cards she kept in the red-and-silver purse at her side.

Sirius Orion Black and Lily Jane Evans

Cordially invite you to their wedding ceremony

In Godric's Hollow, on July 31st, 1977, at 5 PM.

Reception shall be held in Evelyn Cottage, Yorkshire.

Portkeys to the reception are included in your invitation.

"Excited, Lils?" James asked her, finally stopping his pacing.

"As if you aren't," Lily answered, smoothing her dress down. "How's Regulus?"

And wasn't that a surprise; James Fleamont Potter and Regulus Arcturus Black together. If everyone they knew weren't so sure James and Lily were a thing, Lily would worry they would steal hers and Sirius' thunder.

Thinking about Regulus and Sirius naturally led her to her first date with her fiance.

Okay, it was actually a double date: she and Sirius and James and Regulus. To this day she didn't know what Severus had said to Regulus to make him come to Hog's Head on that Valentine's day, nor what excuse James had served to Sirius. The end result was Sirius and Regulus pointing wands at each other, James demonstratively kissing Regulus and Lily and Sirius trying to suck each other's tonsils out.

Aberforth the bartender couldn't stop smirking as they exited his tavern one by one, cheeks red as brick from embarrassment and lips swollen from all the kissing.

The unlikely quartet had to keep their meeting secret by necessity. It wasn't just homosexuality, or the House pride, it was keeping Sirius' and Regulus' family, and by extension Voldemort and his cronies, out of the whole thing that worried Black siblings the most. They couldn't afford them knowing it, and Lily and James were good sports, swearing to keep mum about the entire thing until their graduation.

And today was the day.

"Shall we?" James offered her the arm after checking his watch.

Lily graciously accepted it and together they walked out into the Great Hall to the applause of three quarters of the assembled now-former students. Lily smiled easily, her eyes darting constantly to Sirius' dashing figure. He'd put in extra effort, his boyish curls tamed, mercury-like eyes flashing with mischief.

"Will you or will I?" James grinned as he leaned to whisper in her ear.

"Don't you dare steal my moment, Potter!" Lily hissed good-naturedly. Then louder, "I'd like to invite Sirius Orion Black here."

Sirius was grinning as well as he stood up and strode over to her, falling on one knee steps away from Lily.

"My darling Lily, I know I've been an absolute tosser the past seven years, but will you marry me?"

Amidst chorus of gasps Lily smirked.

"Only if you let Severus stand next to Potter as a best man."

"Potter? What happened to James?" James cried, clutching his heart, but Lily didn't pay him any attention: Sirius' eyes were shining and Regulus was smirking as he elbowed Severus, whose jaw looked ready to touch the floor.

From the corner of her eye, Lily could swear she had seen Headmaster raise a goblet in toast to them, but it could've just been him hiding his smile from the crying Minerva McGonagall and flabbergasted Horace Slughorn.

She definitely understood why Sirius enjoyed pranking people so much.


End file.
